The Holy Land, 1291.A war has been raging across these lands for decades. The forces of the Crusaders have been pushed back again and again by the Muslims and now just one city remains in Crusader control. That one city stands between the past and the future. One city which must be defended at all costs. That city is Acre. And into this battle where men will fight to the death to defend their city comes a young boy. Green and scared, he has never seen battle before. But he is on the run from a dark past and he has no choice but to stay. And to stay means to fight. That boy is Baldwin de Furnshill. This is the story of the siege of Acre, and of the moment Baldwin first charged into battle. This is just the beginning. The rest is history.

An instant New York Times bestseller, from the author of Crusaders, that finally tells the real story of the Knights Templar—“Seldom does one find serious scholarship so easy to read.” (The Times, Book of the Year) A faltering war in the middle east. A band of elite warriors determined to fight to the death to protect Christianity's holiest sites. A global financial network unaccountable to any government. A sinister plot founded on a web of lies... In 1119, a small band of knights seeking a purpose in the violent aftermath of the First Crusade set up a new religious order in Jerusalem, which was now in Christian hands. These were the first Knights Templar, elite warriors who swore vows of poverty and chastity and promised to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Over the next 200 years, the Templars would become the most powerful network of the medieval world, speerheading the crusades, pionerring new forms of finance and warfare and deciding the fate of kings. Then, on October 13, 1307, hundreds of brothers were arrested, imprisoned and tortured and the order was disbanded among lurid accusations of sexual misconduct and heresy. But were they heretics or victims of a ruthlessly repressive state? Dan Jones goes back to the sources to bring their dramatic tale, so relevant to our own times, to life in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.

As the oldest of the military religious orders and the one with an unexpected and dramatic downfall, the knighthood of the Templars continues to fascinate academics and students as well as the public at large. A collection of fifteen chapters accompanied by a historical introduction, The Templars: The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of a Military Religious Order recounts and analyzes this community’s rise and establishment in both the crusader states of the eastern Mediterranean and the countries of western Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, reflects on the proceedings launched against it and its subsequent fall (1307–1314), and explores its medieval and post-medieval legacy, including an assessment of current research pertaining to the Templars and suggestions for future explorations. Showcasing a wide range of methodological approaches and primary source materials, this volume unites historical, art-historical, theological, archaeological, and historiographical perspectives, and it features the work and voices of scholars from various academic generations who reside in eight different countries (Israel, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, and the United States of America).

Explores the rise, fall, and far-reaching legacy of the Knights Templar.

The Templars were members of a medieval monastic order, later accused of denying Christ and other heresies. The Order was subject to a torturous inquisition period during the 14th century and ultimately dissolved. This is a unique collection of translated sources, which in addition to documenting the origins of the Order and the circumstances of its suppression and dissolution, examines the many and varied facets of its activities during the 12th and 13th centuries. It will be of interest to anyone interested in the medieval period, and is an invaluable source for those wanting to find out more about this most fascinating and enigmatic of institutions.

The author tells of the extraordinary organization of warrior-monks who came to power during the Crusades: their wealth and power, the reasons for their downfall, and their passage into myth and legend.

An order of warrior monks founded to protect pilgrims to Jerusalem, the Templars were among the wealthiest and most powerful bodies in the medieval world. Yet two centuries later, they were arrested, accused of blasphemy, heresy and orgies, and their leaders were burnt at the stake. Part guide, part history, this book investigates the Templar legends and legacy - from the mysteries of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, via nineteenth century development of the Freemasons, through to Templar appearances in Dan Brown and Indiana Jones. This book explains the whole context of Templar history, including the recent evidence discovered by the Vatican that the Templars were not guilty of heresy. It also features a guide to Templar castles and sites.

Even 700 years after the suppression of the Order of the Temple and the execution of the last grandmaster, Jacques de Molay, there is no shortage of publications on this influential military order. Yet unlike other medieval institutions the Templars are subject to speculative fiction and popular myth which threaten to swamp the fruits of scholarly endeavour. Fortunately, recent years have produced a thriving academic scholarship which is challenging these myths. More and more sources are currently being edited, particularly those for the trial of the Templars (1307–1312). Others are still awaiting indepth study, among them, surprisingly, the greater part of the charters that cover more than 150 years of the Order’s history. The papers in this volume step into this gap and critically evaluate new directions in Templar studies on the basis of as-yet unedited source material. Open issues and desiderata regarding the sources are discussed and from a range of inspiring results a new status quaestionis is proposed that will not only provide a better understanding of the Order’s archaeological, economical, religious, administrative and military history, but also set new points of departure for the editing of charters and administrative documents. The papers here are grouped into six sections, focusing on the headquarters of the Order, its charters, manpower and finance, religious life and finally the suppression and the Order’s afterlife.

Much has been written about the Knights Templar; their code of conduct, their way of life, the battles and political machinations that took place, the trials which ended their order, and the 9 men who founded their order, and the one who commanded them at the end, Jacque de Molay. While some work has been done to identify the men and women who served as Templars in individual kingdoms and countries, this is the first comprehensive work to merge all of them together and to review the commanderies where they served. Volume 2 of this series identifies the commanders, seneschals, treasurers, drapers, turcopoliers, and more in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Rhodes, Malta, Cyprus, Jerusalem, Outremer, Turkey, Greece, Armenia, Syria, Egypt, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands and the commanderies and fortresses that they built. Tour the castles and fortresses that they commanded and learn how each area played a part in the Crusades.

Next to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, no other place on Earth holds as much esoteric symbolism as France's Rennes le Ch'teau. Its location and design are the subjects of countless rumors, myths, and legends. Mysteries of Templar Treasure and the Holy Grail, formerly published as The Secrets of Rennes le Chateau, delves into the reality behind the action and adventure of The Da Vinci Code. Rennes le Chateau has plenty of secrets: buried treasure, unsolved murders, supernatural powers, codes on parchments and tombstones, not to mention clues concealed in statues and paintings, enigmatic priests who controlled immense wealth, and secret societies that are still active today. The authors survey the arcane history and secrets of Rennes le Chateau, including its relationship to the Merovingian bloodline of Christ. The Chateau is a possible location of an immense treasure, such as a Templar, Cathar, or Priory of Sion hoard. The final resting place of a famous artifact like the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Longinus, the Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus- or even the Holy Grail. The authors also examine Rennes le Chateau's proximity to Cathar and Templar fortresses, its mystical layout, and its location on the same Paris meridian as so many other esoteric mysteries. Extensive appendices in the book offer possible solutions to secret cryptograms, point out odd connections and commonalities between Rennes le Chateau and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and suggest the possibility of fourth-dimension/tesseract implications.